Openly gay judge Mary Wiseman reports good news from Ohio, stating that her primary opponent James D. Piergies has filed papers with the local board of elections to withdraw from the race. Piergies recently questioned her ability to serve on LGBT-related cases, a move that Wiseman says backfired with Montgomery County voters.

“I think his comments exposed to the community what his judicial temperament would be if given the opportunity to serve — and I think there was an adverse reaction in the community to that,” she told GayPolitics.com.

Wiseman, whose appointment by Gov. Ted Strickland made her the state’s first openly LGBT judge, said that she received support from the Governor, the legal community and the local LGBT community in the face of the attack.

“Broader than that, I think I had good support throughout all of Montgomery County,” she said. “I tried to keep the race between my opponent and I focused on the appropriate qualifications for a judge – that’s experience, background, community involvement and judicial temperament. His effort to make the voters think about something else was not successful for him at all.”

The Dayton Daily News endorsed Wiseman last week, stating that she “radiates competence, coming to the bench after nearly 20 years of trial practice.”

The Log Cabin Republicans faced a backlash from across the blogosphere after defending the John McCain’s use of homophobic robocalls.According to Politico, McCain’s campaign sponsored a series of phone calls to Florida voters saying, “”Mitt Romney thinks he can fool us. He supported abortion on demand, even allowed a law mandating taxpayer-funding for abortion. He says he changed his mind, but he still hasn’t changed the law. He told gay organizers in Massachusetts he would be a stronger advocate for special rights than even Ted Kennedy. Now, it’s something different.”

The Blog Cabin blog asserted that “gay Left” are out of bounds, given that McCain ordered a halt to the calls and that Democratic candidates’ gay missteps have not been pounced on to an equal degree. The post states:

Had anyone bothered to reach out to the McCain Campaign, they would have realized Sen. McCain immediately stopped the calls. The campaign told us Sen. McCain never saw the script and never approved it, which is why he stopped the calls ASAP.

Of course, those facts won’t satisfy the left-wing who pounces on these kinds of things. But where were these same left-wingers when Democrat Barack Obama, who has never introduced a single piece of pro-gay legislation in his Senate career, paraded around on stage with an anti-gay religious leader who believes in so-called “conversion therapy”? Where were they when Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton couldn’t bring herself to denounce Gen. Peter Pace’s anti-gay remarks last year? Where were they when Obama proposed meetings and negotiations with the gay-murdering president of Iran?

We can’t defend the McCain staffer who initiated these short-lived robo-calls, but let’s hold both sides accountable, folks!

The reaction has not been kind. A variety of LGBT blogs including Pam’s House Blend, Joe My God and Towleroad took issue with the statements. Under a post titled Log Cabin Misses the Point, Queerty writes:

The Log Cabin Republicans are missing the point of the McCain episode. The fact that his campaign – with or without his knowledge – ran such a tasteless ad not only taints the political pool, but speaks volumes about how the Republicans consider queer citizens. The fact that the Log Cabin Republicans can’t see that makes us wonder whether they understand liberal democracy – period. Unless, of course, they’re more concerned with self-interest and would rather ignore their party’s institutional homophobia.

By a vote of 30-5, the Kentucky Senate voted to pass a bill that would bar the state’s eight public universities from extending benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees.

Advocates of Senate Bill 112 claim that domestic partner benefits violate the state constitution, which bans same-sex marriage, according to the Courier-Journal.

“The only thing that drives this measure is a gay-bashing effort,” openly gay Kentucky state Senator Ernesto Scorsone told the paper.

The Courier-Journal continues:

“I have sympathy for Sen. Scorsone,” said Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville. “I know it’s difficult for him to deal with this issue. Nobody directed any comments at him, nor would we have stood for anyone to say anything disrespectful on the floor.”

Sen. Vernie McGaha, R-Russell Springs, who sponsored the bill, said it is about not sacrificing his convictions.

“I do not recognize domestic partnerships as being a correct thing,” he said. “My Bible teaches against it.”

University presidents have opposed the bill, saying it hurts their ability to recruit researchers and professors.

University of Louisville trustees voted in 2006 to become the state’s first public university to extend health-insurance benefits to unmarried domestic partners, including homosexuals. The University of Kentucky followed suit, and Eastern Kentucky University is looking at the issue.

The Senate passed a similar bill last year, but did not make it out of committee.

Victory Fund Development Manager Stephanie Lurz recently traveled to New Hampshire to support Sen. Hillary Clinton in her primary election. In this essay, she reflects on her experience campaigning for Clinton and her hope for a female president.

“What did you do in New Hampshire?”

It was the question I was waiting for—this time not from an adult, clearly wondering why I would deliberately spend my vacation working on a campaign—but instead from my five-year-old niece, Hannah. I explained it as simply as possible (with a very much prepared answer) and I don’t think she really understood. But that didn’t matter. For the first time ever, she heard the words president, election, and the name of one woman—Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Looking back on it, I was probably an ideal person to be going door to door in New Hampshire, talking to undecided voters. I chose Senator Clinton as my candidate a year ago for the very reasons she puts forth in her own message to voters—she is the most experienced candidate. You don’t choose a less qualified job applicant unless you have a very good reason, and I don’t feel that I have a good reason not to vote for her. But I was nervous about going up there. In recent months, I had become more and more invested in her candidacy for reasons I didn’t feel I could share.

It had been a long time since I campaigned in New Hampshire—I went up for Gore for a month in 2000. Now, eight year later, I returned to Laconia, in Belknap County–only this time, all my old friends weren’t going to be on the same team.

It wasn’t the only thing that would be different. I arrived to an office already filled with staff and interns. There would be no opportunity to build friendships this time around. With only five days left until the primary, I was immediately sent on a canvassing mission after a brief stint holding up signs on the same corner where I had stood for Gore in 2000. I spent the next four days going door to door for ten hours each day.

It sounds exhausting and it is, but something was driving me—deep down, I feared we were going to lose. Everyone thought we were going to lose. Everyone said we would lose and this campaign would be over. But I was walking around with a picture of Hannah in my back pocket and I did not want to lose.

Over time, I have become attached to the idea of a woman president. I admit it. The campaigns talk about race and gender like they don’t and shouldn’t matter but they do matter when you are a part of the group that has been disenfranchised. This was history we were making in New Hampshire. You could feel it everywhere you went.

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Quote Vermont state Rep. Jason Lorber: “The thing about my partner is, he’s gay. Which I’m fine with. Growing up, I never pictured myself being with a gay guy. Now, I’ve come to realize that I could never be happy being with a straight guy.”

While the openly gay Lorber serves in the Vermont Statehouse during the day, he moonlights as a professional stand-up comedian. Lorber discusses his personal life in his act, including the fact he is in a civil union and has a one-year-old son.

The Associated Press reports:

He says legislating and performing are both passions for him.

“Politics is about changing society and trying to make the world a better place. And performing makes me feel so alive. I love the creative aspect of it,” he said.

Lorber grew up in California, making him a “flatlander” or non-native to Vermonters. That gives him an outsider’s view on things New Englanders take for granted, like coping with winters:

“I have a regimen for keeping warm: I get up, I put on a tank top, T-shirt, flannel shirt, sweater, jacket and scarf. Then if it dips below 50, I put on more clothes.”